15 Sep 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
“In a world marked by dramatic tensions, even through this initiative, the Focolare Movement intends to propose fraternity as a way that leads to peace”. The opening of this great gathering held at the SportArena of Budapest, packed to full capacity by 11,000 participants, who came from 92 countries from all over the world, consisted of the address of Pope Benedict XVI, read by Cardinal Peter Erdo, the Archbishop of Budapest and the Primate of Hungary. The ideas, experiences and concrete initiatives offered during the gathering, proposed universal fraternity as an answer to the many challenges of today. The Pope encouraged those participating “to continue the fruitful work brought ahead up till now, incarnating the Gospel of love in the affairs of each day”. Among those present in the ultra modern Hungarian sports stadium, there were followers of other religions, among whom a good number of Muslims from Algeria, Christians of various denominations, and members belonging to 13 other Catholic Movements and New Communities. There were also civil and religious personalities, among them Peter Harrach, the Vice-president of the Hungarian Parliament. This event followed the two day meeting which was held in the Hungarian capital city and in which more than 9000 “volunteers of God” took part. The “volunteers of God”, a branch of the Focolare Movement committed to contribute towards the renewal of society, was commemorating the 50th anniversary of its birth, as an answer to the tragic “events of Budapest”. 50 years after those tragic events, the founder of the Focolare Movement spoke about the situation of the world today: she spoke about the signs of a humanity engulfed by “a collective and cultural darkness”. In her address, read by Valeria Ronchetti, one of her first companions, Chiara Lubich spoke of “the collective darkness of our times, which has progressively fallen over humanity, especially in the West”, where relativism predominates and where ethics can no longer keep up with the scientific and technological advancements taking place at a frenetic pace. The West is searching “for incisive ideas, an ideal that opens the way and provides answers to the many tormenting questions, and that sheds a light to follow”. While repeating the words of John Paul II, Chiara indicated the way in the “tragedy of a God, who cries out: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” “This was his inner passion, his darkest night, the climax of his suffering”. It is a tragedy that sheds light on our paths: “If we are able to encounter Him in every suffering, if we love Him, by saying to the Father as Jesus did on the cross: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Lk 23:46), then with Him the night will pass away and the light will illumine us”. She also said that “the Movement has acquired an extremely rich experience”, one that has seen new developments during these last years. 
Chiara spoke of “inundations of light” – borrowing a term from John Chrysostom, a great Father of the Church – which illuminates today’s culture in its various aspects. These inundations are a result of a “dialogue, which the Focolare Movement began some years ago. It is a dialogue between the wisdom which the charisma of unity has to offer and the various fields of human knowledge and endeavour”: from politics to ecology; from communication to health, law and economy. This development is the work of the Holy Spirit, that “precisely in our times has been generous, forcefully penetrating the human family with various charismas, which then gave birth to movements, spiritual currents, new communities and works”. It is not a novelty that “civic and economic experiences originate from spiritual currents born from charismas. The story of humanity is studded with them”. This was how Luigino Bruni, professor of political economics at the University of Milan – Bicocca (Italy), introduced the first of the four round table talks held to face the challenges encountered in the fields of economics, law, communications and politics. “The inspiring spark of that, which was immediately called Economy of Communion” occurred in 1991, during Chiara Lubich’s trip to San Paolo, Brazil, in the face of the “scandal posed by a world of luxurious skyscrapers and inhumane shacks”. “Many modern firms, efficient in their running, which operate within the market economy” have become the protagonists of this project, giving also rise to industrial estates. The novelty of this project is that the profits produced are used to help the growth of the firm, thus creating employment opportunities, to form “new people” who are ready to live this new culture, and to help those who have immediate needs. “It is not just a novelty of life, but also a novelty of thought, it is a doctrinal novelty”. Kelen Leite, a young Brazilian researcher, spoke about this. She is one of about 200 young university students who published their thesis on the Economy of Communion. She confirmed that “some universities were now teaching this theory along with other theories in economics courses”. Facts give evidence: During the massive economic crisis that hit Asia in 1997, a rural bank in the Philippines, set up to help farmers and operating in line with the Economy of Communion, not only managed to overcome the crisis, but it bravely managed to set up a project of micro-finance, lending out money to the poor without collateral. A new credit agency was born and presently this is still doing quite well. This is the experience of Tess and Francis Ganzon, of the board of directors of Bangko Kabayan. Launching of the “Brotherhood with Africa” project – A chance open to everyone to contribute to a new economy. This project, presented at the end of the morning session, aims at increasing human and professional resources in Africa, so that the Africans themselves will contribute towards the social and cultural development of their country. Young and adult Africans, who lack financial means, will be given support in the form of scholarships for university or post-university professional courses. Those who will benefit from this project will be asked to work in their country, at least for some time, after they finish their studies. The three other challenges in the fields of law, communication and politics were tackled in the afternoon session.
31 Aug 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
Hiroshima, 21-25 August 2006 «Dear young men and women, participants in the Youth Assembly of Religions for Peace, I have been informed that you have come together in Hiroshima from the various continents of the world to demonstrate and work on behalf of peace. To each and all my warmest greeting, and best wishes that this assembly be rich in proposals and concrete fruits. There is no need to pause on the importance of what you are doing in these days. The tragic situation of a world that longs for peace but seems unable to attain it is before the eyes of all. And so every gesture towards this goal is meaningful; every effort, every endeavor is a contribution. But I would say that you who are religious youth, believers in a faith, have a very special task and role to play in the vast workshop that is planet earth. Yes, because you are convinced – no matter what religion you come from – that your neighbor, every neighbor should be respected and loved. In fact the “Golden Rule”, as this precept is called, is present in the Sacred Books of all the great world religions. In practice it says: Do to others as you would have them do to you; desire for others what you desire for yourself; do not do or desire for others that which would cause suffering to you. Love for neighbor, understood in this way, is the most efficacious contribution that the world awaits in our times; it is the key towards solving every problem, the fundamental medicine for every evil. We need to spell out, however, that the love which we, who have received the gift of religious faith, are called to bring to the world is a special kind of love, as strong as death. It is not enough to practice tolerance or non-violence, nor does mere friendship or goodwill towards others suffice. It is a love which extends indistinctly towards all: young and old, rich and poor, fellow-countryman or stranger, friend or foe. It requires that we be merciful and forgiving. We have to be the first to love others, taking the initiative and not waiting for others to love us. We must love not in words alone, but concretely, in deeds. And forgetting ourselves to be at the service of others implies sacrifice and fatigue. True peace and unity come about when this way of life is practiced not only by individuals but by people together, united in mutual love. You will have a chance to experience how true this is by loving one another in these days. In the Christian liturgy there is a song which says: “Where there is charity and love, there is God”. God among you, present in your mutual love, will enlighten and guide you on the steps to take, giving you strength, ardor, joy. And the presence of God will unite you in an invisible but powerful net, even when you are far from one another. Love, therefore: love among all of you and love sown into every corner of the world among persons, groups and nations, using every means possible, in order that, thanks also to your contribution, there be an invasion of love in the world. Courage my dear young people! I urge you to go forward dauntlessly. Youth is generous, youth does not count the cost. If we all live this way, humanity will become more and more one family and a rainbow of peace will shine out in the world! I am with you». Chiara Lubich
2 Aug 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
Like all other Lebanese villages that have not yet been bombed, Biacout is crowded with both Christian and Muslim families, that fled from the southern regions of Beirut. Here there is a small pilot project set up by the volunteers of the Focolare Movement during the war of the 80’s. They wanted to create an oasis of peace where people could live together in harmony. Presently, it is living a new phase of its “vocation”.
At the Medical Social Centre we met Acia, a lady we first met 20 years ago, when together with her family and hundreds of other people, she fled from her village at the south of Lebanon. We met her at the beach. She had neither shelter nor food; she had nothing. We tried to help her and since then our relationship became much stronger.
Today the story is starting all over again. Acia has welcomed in her home three families, who come from her village, and two old people. Her precarious situation does not stop her from sharing her belongings with others. “We try to do the best we can”, she told us. “ As it is summer, men can sleep on the terrace; but we still need mattresses. Most of all we need medicines for the children, for my mother and my mother-in-law. Even my husband needs medicines.” In fact, about a year ago it was discovered that her husband is suffering from muscular sclerosis and since then he has been receiving treatment. She continued, “Today, other families have been offered shelter by my neighbour. They are in a very bad state, in need of everything”.
We shared with them all that we had and then continued our round. We arrived at Notre Dame Home, built when the war was at its worst, to be a haven of peace and of sharing. Sawsan, the kindergarten teacher is presently giving shelter to 8 Muslim families. They thank “Allah” that they are here and hope that their relatives, who live very near to the border, are safe and sound.
Very angrily, one of them blurted out, “Let us hope “Allah” burns all those who are killing us”. But immediately she said: “This is too much for me! I become upset and I become very angry when I see what is happening and what has happened; but I know that even the people on the other side are suffering because of this war”. Fatmè confirmed: “We are all God’s children. May the almighty Allah instil calmness in hearts and in spirits and may he help us to live again in peace.”
Meanwhile Wardè, a young Christian arrived. During the last war she fled from the south together with her husband and children and she found refuge in Biacout. Lately she returned to the south. “Now, thank God, we are back to Biacout! None of us has been wounded or struck. We are three families who live together. We have nothing; we are afraid of what is happening and of what might happen to us.”
While we were talking, I saw some Schiiti women holding long rosary beads in their hands. They were praying to the Great “Allah”, praising and thanking him. And we left each other on this very beautiful spiritual note.
Wardè accompanied us and we tried to share her suffering. We went back to the car and in our hearts we could feel the pleasantness of the moments lived together at Notre Dame Home and the bitterness of the cry of suffering that re-echoes everywhere.
23 Jul 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
The responsable persons of the Movement in Lebanon wrote: “Once again, here in Lebanon we experience that only God remains. Infrastructures that had just been finished after the war, crumble in a few seconds. More than 500.000 people from southern and eastern Lebanon (out of 4 million people) have left their homes in about a week. Bombings, deaths, wounds, what you see on Tv its all true. Just as the extraordinary experience we are doing: everything breaks down, but Love wins it all. After the initial dismay, fright and many “Why’s?”, love goes round, being stronger than hate.” Christians and Muslism – “We also opened our homes to many of our muslim friends and their families. We met them over the last three years and started building a real fraternity. They have been main characters in living concrete love: mutual help in the kitchen, cleaning, playing with the children, helping other evacuees”. God’s plan – “Nevertheless what the great powers of the world want you to believe, Lebanon is living God’s real plan for it: christians and muslims are living as real brothers and sisters. We really must thank God, who has brought out so much Good from this evil. Also our friends feel that even if the whole world would abbandon us, God never will.” Unlimited Solidarity– “Food of all kinds, money, people living near and assuring their help for any need: among the suffering, there’s the joy of feeling we are real brothers and sisters”. Experiencing we are a “family”, makes us feel that love heals relationships and wounds, makes people feel less afraid, gives new hope and brings peace”. We also received a direct experience from some young people, commited in the solidarity actions promoted by the Movement. J. wrote: The hardest challenge – “I would like to tell you about the war experience from another point of view: it is true that we are living an “allarming” situation, which its making us move backwards and will have terrible consequences for Lebanon. It is also true that we don’t know what will happen in the future. If things go as they are, this conflict may become a Middle East war… and who knows what else… BUT in the present moment, the hardest challenge is to overcome the temptation of feeling powerless, which is burning us little by little”. Go beyond ourselves and reach out our neighbour- “ During the last community meeting of the Focolare Movement, last saturday, and the young people congress -that lasted saturday and sunday- we experienced going beyond ourselves and jumping from being observers to action. Reaching out towards our neighbours: helping, loving…. maybe only by doing small things: as listening others, playing with the children. With some youngsters, we went to Beirut and met in two schools 600 refugees coming from the South. We brought them mattresses and other things they needed”. “It is true, everything crumbles. However, it is also true that underneath this caos, God is there and He’s working. We only have to pay attention to his presence. Lets keep praying and, above all, lets keep living in the present moment. J”.
22 Jul 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
The community of Lebanon has sent us a new witness: it is part of the drama that the Christian and Muslim population of this small nation are living, and it is a witness that the commitment for peace and solidarity wins over fear, hatred and violence.
Those who would like to contribute help by sending money, they can do so through AMU (see note at the end).
The Witness
I was in my car. Traffic was very slow and I could see that supermarkets and big shopping centres were very crowded. The look on people’s faces was sad or rebellious. It was only in my car that I could sense that which I thought has been forgotten.
As I was listening all the time to a radio station that warns against any danger that can crop up any minute, once again I could hear the same note on Flash Information Radio Liban, the one we have been listening to during the most difficult and terrible moments of the long war. It is a note that has stuck to our ears and it continuously makes us shiver: “Here is the news: the villages of South Kleya, Debl, Marjehyoun and many other localities are in a very critical situation. Crowds of people are sheltering in churches and in townhalls because they are in great danger. They are appealing for help to evacuate the sick, the handicapped, the old, the wounded. . . They lack food and medicines, and they have neither water nor electricity. This is a state of emergency, a situation that cannot last for a long time. . .
After a few seconds I hear the same sad voice: “The outskirts of Zahle` have been intensely bombarded; the central electric power station has been damaged. We appeal to everyone to stay indoors unless it is extremely necessary to go out.”
My mobile phone rings: it is a friend of mine who lives in Achrafieh, Beirut. She asks me to find a safe place for her mother. . .
Yes, this time war is presenting a new danger: it is destroying a nation, a people. . . This war is being fought by distructing bridges, roads, all public and private infrastructure. All regions are being targeted; not one region is being spared: the south, Bekaa, the north, the coast, Beirut. There is danger everywhere. The people are exhausted. And by the look of things, the end does not seem to be near. . .
But . . .
. . . amidst this hell and state of general desolation, there is always a ray of light, of new energies that give hope, motivate and encourage. . .
This is what is happening in IRAP (a rehabilitation centre for the deaf and dumb): there are crowds of people in the big hall, in the corridors, in the classes that have been transformed into lucky places of shelter.
One tries to establish contacts with social institutions to coordinate help. Rolls of toilet paper, blankets, foodstuffs, medicines for small children who risk to suffer from acute diarrhoea, are being transported to a centre in Bourg Hammoud where people are finding shelter. Matresses and clothing are being donated by the Lebanese themselves to help families with small children.
We try to contact our friends, who live in the south and who are isolated wihout any help. But many telephone lines have been destroyed.
The will to live and make others live does not die out even though the possibilities are very limited.
Christians, Muslims, Schiiti and Sunniti, all share the same fate, and they are united because they are all prey of the same violence. They are united because they are Lebanese, they love their country and they are faithful to their roots.
This spirit of solidarity is kept alive. We, ourselves must build the peace we strife for, sustained by prayer; we must build it inside us every moment being ready to always start afresh. This is the way to win the sentiments of fear, hatred and violence that want to destruct us.
A group of young people has left our Centre to go to help others. One of them said: “We have lived ‘heavenly moments’ here”. I said to her: “May you bring this heaven to the places where you go.”
This is the greatest richness we try to give to those around us. We need all kinds of goods. Many people lost everything. But above all we need friendship, solidarity and prayers.
For yet another time “The Country of cedars” will be born again, it will live! The hope of Claudel and the faith of the great saints are alive in us. Our Lady of Harissa protects this small country, the garden of God, “a piece of heaven on earth”, that everyone wants to possess, as a Lebanese singer says.
We launch an appeal to all our friends, to all organisations that have already collaborated with us: start a chain of prayers, a chain of help. Mobilize the public opinion in favour of the sovereignity of Lebanon. Every act of solidarity is welcome!
From the group at IRAP: Janine and Mona
How to help:
Association: “Action for a United World”
NGO – Via Frascati, 342 – 00040 Rocca di Papa (Roma) – Italia
Bank Account No. 640053
Bank: Sanpaolo IMI, Ag. di Grottaferrata (Roma) ABI 01025 CAB 39140 CIN M
International Bank information needed for contributions from other foreign countries:
IBAN IT 16 M10 2539 1401 0000 0640 053 BIC IBSPITTM – “Emergenza Libano”
In Italy one may also use the conto corrente postale 81065005, made out to AMU, indicating the address of the NGO and specifying the project one wishes to support.
The “Action for a United World” (AMU) association is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that is inspired by the spirit of unity of the Focolare Movement. It aims at universal brotherhood, promoting projects of cooperation for the development of countries and peoples while fully respecting their social, cultural and economic realities.
11 Mar 2006 | Focolare Worldwide
Ayubu, 42 years old, lives in Akum, Cameroon. His job is raffia bag-making, a craft which is typical of his village. “When I was told that I had AIDS, I felt like a dead man walking. I was two persons at the same time: one was already dead, and the other was a body in motion. Then I was invited to the Club. To my surprise, I saw a lot of people in my own situation, who laughed and talked as if they were normal. Little by little, I came back to life: I wasn’t two persons anymore but one. I became alive again. Even my bags are selling and I am now learning how to create ceramics.” The “Club” Ayubu talks about is one of the support groups for AIDS patients, promoted by the Focolare Movement in Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This network of “Clubs” in the different districts treats each patient according to a global approach, sustaining the patient, his/her family and other people at risk. The project has been integrated with UN projects. At the XIVth World Conference on AIDS held in Barcelona last July 7-12,2002, the results obtained by the project were presented, namely, the building up of diffusive, self-sufficient, low-cost social welfare networks in local communities. These results were also published in the Conference Proceedings as one of the “Interventions and programmes for improvement.” How the idea was born – The project began in 1992 in a mission hospital in Nigeria, under the guidance of two doctors and a nun who realized that in order to control the spread of the disease and avoid marginalizing those who are afflicted, it was not sufficient to follow the hospital protocol for AIDS patients. The collaboration of health care personnel, family members, schoolteachers, local authorities and traditional healers was necessary to help create a sense of brotherhood and acceptance around HIV-positive persons. Here is the experience of one of the pioneers, Spanish doctor Fernando Rico Gonzales: “For various reasons, in particular due to lack of formation and information, HIV-positive persons often refuse to accept their diagnosis. The deep and hopeless suffering I saw in many of these people led me to talk about this right away with my patients and ask them if they would like to meet with others like them, so that they can help one another with their common problems.” From Nigeria, the experience was repeated in other African countries. Today, around a hundred people are linked to the club of Akum and Bali in Cameroon, including about 20 children. Patients in more serious condition are cared for and visited in their homes. These “clubs” are supported by the NGO “Azione per un mondo unito” (AMU) (tr. “Action for a United world = AMU). To date, €16.048,24 have been raised. The annual budget requires approximately €18.600. Donations to AMU – Azione per un Mondo Unito may be named to the “Bamenda Project.” from Amu Notizie issues 1/2004 – 2/2005 and 4/2005, and Living City issue 5/2005
